As the components required to build a computer system have reduced in size, new categories of computer systems have emerged. One of the new categories of computer systems is the “palmtop” computer system. A palmtop computer system is a computer that is small enough to be held in the hand of a user and can be “palm-sized.” Most palmtop computer systems are used to implement various Personal Information Management (PIM) applications such as an address book, a daily organizer (i.e., a date-book like application) and electronic notepads, to name a few.
Among the most popular features of such palmtop computers is the daily organizer which operates on the palmtop computer and synchronizes to a similar application on a user's desktop computer. Such applications of the palmtop computer have made managing appointments and events easier and more convenient for many users. However, rapid advances in communication and travel have caused many people to commonly have dealings with associates all over the world. This makes management of an event calendar more challenging due to the need to operate across multiple time zones. Heretofore, the date-book functions of computer applications in general including palmtop computers has been inadequate to deal with the problems associated with maintaining a calendar of events occurring in multiple time zones.
Consider for example the following situations:
1. You are in France and schedule an appointment for a phone call with someone in California. You both want to deal with the same time and time zone to create the appointment, but still see at what time this will translate in your own local time zone.
2. You are in France and schedule an appointment for a phone call with someone in California while you will be in Tokyo (or maybe you don't even know where you will be at the appointment time). You want to use the California time to set the appointment, and see it displayed in your local time, even if you have changed time zone since you set it.3. You are in France, and schedule a meeting with someone in California, but this meeting will take place in Tokyo. You both want to be able to use Tokyo time.